Kara and her husband were struggling. Between jobs and on short-term disability, they felt stuck on a continuous loop of living check to check, borrowing money, and suddenly unsure of how they were going to make it when Kara discovered they were going to be parents. Kara knew they would need help to break out of the vicious cycle. And she knew they needed to be equipped to make it long-term, not just instant gratification with financial support. 

Cue LoveLine. Three years into marriage and three months along in her pregnancy, Kara reached out to LoveLine, not knowing what to expect. 

“I knew that LoveLine could help with bills and things like that, but the financial coaching is what really got me. Even if I didn’t get help in the short term, I needed help in the long term, learning how to manage my money. And so I really had no idea what to expect,” Kara explains. 

The response pleasantly surprised Kara: “Everyone was so welcoming and nice, and just making sure I was safe gave me so much hope.” 

“It was so easy. I was most nervous that it would take a long time or, you know, it would be really complicated. But they [LoveLine] texted me back and set up a phone call. Pretty instantaneously, I was set up with a case manager and a financial coach,” explains Kara. “Everyone was always really flexible and helpful.” 

Together with their case manager, Kara and her husband developed a case plan to dig her out of the financial hole they felt trapped in. Kara diligently worked on each step of her plan, accomplishing every goal. Her case manager connected Kara with resources she didn’t know existed. Kara and her husband graduated from LoveLine’s financial coaching program when Kara achieved her ultimate goal: enough financial security to pare down her job to part-time hours to be home with her newborn son. 

Then, another challenge disrupted the newfound peace in their home. 

“I had quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom, and I had taken on another job just on the weekends because we felt like that would be best for our family at the time. We figured that would help with burnout a little bit on my end and would help our marriage overall. I was very excited to be at home with my son. That was my ultimate goal. So I was super excited; we ran the numbers a million times,” Kara shares. “And on paper, it was definitely something that we could do. What I did not account for was the fact that my husband was going through a lot on his own mentally that I had no idea about.” 

“So, all at once, everything flipped. He didn’t want to be together anymore. That was, of course, after I had quit my job. He wanted me and my son to move out,” continues Kara. 

Unsure of where to go and what to do when she got there, Kara felt panicked. She was too shocked to tell her family what was happening. Still, she desperately needed to share her plight with someone, so she contacted her LoveLine case manager again. 

“I remember reaching back out to my case manager and financial coach, and I was very apprehensive about telling anyone what was going on. But they both knew me too well and eventually pulled everything out of me,” recalls Kara. 

“I didn’t end up needing financial assistance that second time, but I needed someone to look at it all with me and say, ‘Okay, you’re gonna get this; it’s gonna be okay.’ So I ended up getting another job and working full-time again, getting my son into daycare, which I never thought I would do. But we’re doing it, and it’s been great for him and me both. I have my own place now that I was able to get into without any assistance. I’m so grateful that I reached out that second time,” Kara reflects. 

Walking through this turbulent situation with Kara, her case manager referred her to LoveLine’s licensed counseling services. Postpartum challenges are complex, but the compounded layer of a broken marriage could have caused a downward spiral for Kara and her son. LoveLine saw the need and filled it. While Kara’s experience of motherhood wasn’t what she expected, it has not been without joy. 

When asked about the reality versus the expectations of motherhood, Kara explains: “I think, of course, as women, as mothers, we are so good at trying to sugarcoat stuff to make it sound better than it is. LoveLine was there just to let me unapologetically be myself and meet me where I was in the moment. They never made me feel like I was being judged. They never made me feel like I was alone. They always made me feel like I had people on my side.”

“Going through what I was going through while solo parenting was and will always be one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done. Having a baby sleeping in your arms that is fully dependent on you and knowing that your picture of motherhood is not going to turn out how you thought it was going to. No little girl thinks of being a single mom when they grow up, divorced at 23. Nobody thinks that that’s going to happen to them. It was so scary to think that the picture-perfect life that I had planned for him was not going to be his life anymore,” continues Kara. 

Moving on with her life without the support of her husband and child’s father, Kara has reconnected with a supernatural, God-given inner strength specially designed for mothers by our Creator. It has been an honor for LoveLine’s team to witness her journey. 

“While it was so hard, it’s pulled a strength out of me that I did not know I had. We’re making it. We still played every day. I never wanted my storm to get him wet,” says Kara. “Especially with the help of LoveLine, I don’t think it ever will.” 

“I’m definitely still able to feel the joy of motherhood in hard times. I think mothers are good at that. We always make the most of every situation.” 

Kara wants to encourage any mom who is afraid of taking that first step to ask for help: 

“There are so many people who have gone through this, just like getting in line for a roller coaster. People will help you along the way. It’s going to take time and it’s going to be hard. You’re going to have to have a lot of strength to ask for help, but once it starts going, it just starts going, and life starts getting better. That’s really all I can say.” 

LoveLine’s counselor, financial coach, and case manager are all equally impacted for the better by being on this roller coaster with Kara. Confident in the Lord and her love for her son, her example will be an enduring hope and strength in his life and ours.